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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Kelly Macdonald: A Talent Worthy of Notice

I’ve really come to appreciate the acting talent of Kelly Macdonald
while watching Boardwalk Empire.The way her character has transformed
from a victimized, God-fearing Irish Catholic immigrant and vulnerable widow in
the show’s first season to a brazen, bold and unpredictable woman
has allowed Macdonald to display some seriously good acting chops and has
provided for one of the most interesting character journeys on
the show.You can never be sure on what
trajectory her character is going to go next because Margaret and her
circumstances are always changing.

There was a time when Macdonald was a celebrity who went
unnoticed in public.She had been in
movies but it’s the “TV thing,” or so Macdonald calls it, which has propelled
her from unnoticed to recognized celebrity.Once you’re on a hugely popular show and in people’s living rooms every week,
anonymity pretty much goes out the window.

It’s great to see Macdonald starring in an epic, lavish,
period drama and holding her own and then some amongst an ensemble cast mostly
comprised of men.But she’s proven that
she’s got the grit and the presence to stand out as the lone female (or the
most interesting female) before.Take
her role in Trainspotting for instance.She was a green actress unknown to audiences
and tapped to play the seductive schoolgirl who seduces the film’s leading man
in a role that called for explicit nudity in a graphic sex scene.She was also the only female face on the
film’s poster.She was brave and feisty
and a great choice by Danny Boyle for the part.She was given a tall task and a lot of responsibility and she delivered on all that was expected of her.

In No Country for Old
Men, Macdonald again played the main female role in a film full of men, and
she created, for me, one of the film’s most memorable and powerful moments.When Carla Jean returns home after her
husband’s funeral to find Anton Chigurh there waiting for her, she calmly
engages in a conversation with him and bluntly asks him if he is going to kill
her.She knows her fate and is resigned
to it and is never flustered or hysterical or tearful.As easy-going as she is early on interacting
with her husband Llewellyn is just how easy-going she is near the film’s end
when she is faced with certain death.

Macdonald’s other notable film roles include Mary in Gosford Park, an unassuming maid who see
and hears everything, and Gina in The
Girl in the Café, a young girl who finds herself talking about third world
debt and poverty when a man who’s in love with her brings her with him to a G8
Summit in Iceland.Macdonald has
demonstrated that she can play any part, big or small, with impact.You know that old saying, “When you’ve got
it, you’ve got it?”Well, Macdonald’s
definitely got it and it’s been a treat getting to watch her work every week.

Great post! I loved her ever since Trainspotting, she is a really great actress. Love her work in Boardwalk Empire, it is amazing how underrated this show is, this should be the winner of Emmy for Best Drama series.

Thank you! She's a powerful, versatile actress worthy of great parts and I've really enjoyed watching her the lead female on "Boardwalk Empire." The show won the Golden Globe for best drama and it was richly deserved. It would be nice to see the show and its actors get further recognition.

Kelly MacDonald is someone I always loved. She's definitely one of the reasons why I love Boardwalk Empire. One performance of hers that I think is very underrated but very funny is a supporting role in Splendor by Gregg Araki. She's just really funny in that film.